One-on-one with Sen. Mark Warner

Joining us now is Senator Warner, Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Thank you so much for joining us, Senator. Thank you, Julie. Thank you so much. So you said that this is going to be your last campaign. What is it that you hope to accomplish in a fourth term? And why is it that voters should once again send you back to Washington? Well, I think three things. What I hear everywhere across Virginia is these prices are too high. You know, gas, diesel, groceries. And this is directly attributable to this president's choice of going to war against Iran that has not improved the security of our nation, his tariff policy. We need to end the war. We need to stop the tariffs. We also have to grapple with health care. I mean, we're going to lose 310,000 Virginians losing health care starting in January. This is from that big, ugly bill they passed over a year ago. So, you know, it'd be ironic. Ironically, the hypocrisy of saying we're not going to make the bad things happen until after the elections. But Virginians know it. And it's going to really hit in rural communities that voted for the president. And then, you know, my background as a tech guy means I think I can help navigate artificial intelligence. We're not putting it back in the, you know, not putting the genie back in the bottle. But we need some rules around data centers in terms of power, water, setbacks, and none of these nondisclosure agreements. We've got to have AI companies help through this workforce transition. A lot of kids are going to get out of college and may not be a job. And finally, probably the thing I bring the most of is that there's not been a bipartisan deal that's taken place in the last 15 years in the Senate that I've not been in the middle of. Who ends up winning, and I hope the Democrats win, and I feel that way, huge energy, and that we're going to need somebody that has shown their ability to work with both sides of the aisle. We ought to be able to disagree with each other without the kind of some of the venom that's out there. And unfortunately, I think people are tired of President Trump, his mean spiritedness, his willingness that anybody who disagrees with him is somehow, you know. Wrong on everything, and I think people are done, and that's why I think it's going to bode well for Tuesday. And I might put as well, you know, today's the last day of early vote in Virginia, so if you're worried about lines on Tuesday, get out and vote today. Now your challenger, your opponent there, says that Virginia, to your point on working with the White House, says that Virginia needs a Republican who's willing to work with President Trump in order to try to get things done in what he believes might be a bipartisan way. But what is your response to that, having been in office and having worked with Trump before? Well, listen, I worked with President Trump well in the first term, and then, you know, when we looked at the things like the infrastructure bill that provided broadband money or the parks money that we got for our national parks restoration, the CHIPS bill that brought semiconductors industry back in, those were all my bills with a Republican partner. The amazing thing about my opponent, and I respect his military service, but I think he's the only guy running anywhere in the country that actually thinks Donald Trump should have a third term. Which is unconstitutional, so if that's your choice, he's your guy. If you think we need to bring some rationality back, and I think people in Virginia know me, they know me as governor, they know me as senator, and I feel good about Tuesday, but I'm out here today, meeting voters, and continue that tomorrow and Monday. All the way through the tape on Tuesday afternoon. One thing that a lot of voters are taking into consideration here is that war in Iran. Mizzou saw was says that with his military background that Trump listens to him and he actually will help him be able to find a agreeable terms to end this war in Iran. Now you yourself has called this a fiasco. What do you believe the US should do right now? We should declare victory and get out. I mean, listen, we started this war that didn't ask Congress. I've been chair or vice chair of the Intel Committee for the last 15 years. There was no imminent threat. And what has this war cost us 20 service members. It is, you know, the regime is worse. They have the enriched uranium, we've gone through all these munitions, basically shooting off missiles that cost $2.5 million apiece to take down a $30,000 Iranian drone, when we turned down the Ukrainian technology, which was crazy, and we all know gas at $4.20, diesel at $6.40. Thank you. You know, this war is a disaster, and it hurts us and the world. Remember, for 75 years, America was viewed as the good guys around the world. This president has managed to, you know, blow away most of our allies. I make the comment, it's hard to piss off Canadians. He's even made Canada into somewhat of an enemy. That's not good for America. And quite honestly, I have yet to find a single, even MAGA supporter. That wants to send 15, 20,000 troops into Iran on the ground to try to get the enriched uranium out for another endless war in the Middle East. We've got to end it. And this war is obviously raising gas prices, which is a major point of contention for a lot of Americans all across the country, of course, right here in Virginia as well. But affordability, going with the gas prices and at the grocery stores, that is really something that Americans are really feeling hit hard by. What is it that you say that you can effectively do to try to help ease that for families? Remember, gas in Virginia was $2.81 a gallon before the war started. We have a majority, or we have some of my Republican friends who will grow a backbone. We can stop the war. On top of that, the tariff policy has driven up costs. That drives up everything that is imported. I mean, and we have tariffs. He doesn't put tariffs on Russia. He actually leaves and gives more support to Putin, which I think is a disaster. But he puts tariffs on all our allies. You want to bring costs down right away? You've got to. Cut the tariffs, and you've got to end the war. And then we have to finally step back up and realize that our health care system is so broken. And I was a business guy longer than I've been in politics. Our system is so broken, we've got to move to universal health care so that we can actually focus on bringing down costs. Because the one thing that we do, we spend all our energy debating. Who's going to get covered and who's not going to get covered? And we never do anything about cost containment because health care costs will blow up this budget, particularly as we think about with AI coming on. You know, You know, AI could lead to innovation, but we've got to navigate this technology transformation. And again, my businesses were all in technology. I think I understand the upside of this, but also the downside. Now, you have made AI kind of the center of your campaign, and for Virginians, it's very something that they weigh heavily in on with so many data centers being right here in Virginia and a lot of people not wanting them in their neighborhoods. But what would be your proposal for the guardrails of data centers and also, you know, for AI of encouraging it, but with parameters? Well, listen. Every new industry, you've got to have some guardrails. I think on data centers, a data center's got to bring its own power, and it needs to be clean power. Water's gotten better because they can reuse the water, but they need to not drain off the water. They need to have, I think, at least a quarter to a half mile setback from a neighborhood. And these local governments shouldn't be able to sign nondisclosure agreements that launch these things onto communities. And if they don't do that... They shouldn't get what's called bonus tax depreciation, which allows them to write off the cost of the data center all in the first year. Most of the companies were willing to buy into that until the president said no guardrails at all. We need to also protect our kids. I think we screwed up on social media not putting on kid protections. I think when a family kid comes back and says their new boyfriend or girlfriend is a chatbot, we've got to protect our kids from some of these chatbots that encourage self-harm. We've got to have a liability standard, because when these AI agents go rogue, somebody's got to pay for it. You know, the idea that we're going to trust Elon Musk to set the standards is crazy. And I fear, I believe there will be AI jobs created over a longer haul. But for these next four or five years, we've got to have these companies that are trillion-dollar companies, they hope to be. Chip in on making sure the training and skills are there, particularly for people coming out of college, so they don't come out of college with a lot of debt and not have a job. And frankly, I think there's a lot of bipartisan interest in all of those ideas. And that's why, again, I just think the president has been so wrong by saying I'm pro-AI, but I'm pro-AI with guardrails, not pro-AI by saying. All over to Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg at Meta, and you guys make up your own rules. That would be crazy. That would be the one way we could lose to China, because we could have an incident where an AI agent might take over a bank or a hospital or a water system, and the American people are already suspect enough about this. And that could turn the whole country against this, what I think will in the long term still be good innovation. All right, Senator Warner, thank you so much again. Today is the last day for early voting. Elections will be held Tuesday. We will see how the outcome goes as Senator Warner is looking to go back to Washington for a fourth term. Appreciate your time today, sir. Thank you so much.